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Author Archives: Heather

Just yesterday, Taffy Brodesser-Akner posted a wonderful profile of one Tom Hiddleston in GQ. It’s extremely delightful, just like its subject, and is highly recommended reading (his enthusiasm about the Bolognese made me grin). Today also just so happens to be his actual birthday! If you’ve been following this blog for any period of time, you might be aware that we’re rather fond of this charming, dashing, sincere gentleman. I personally had the utter pleasure and delight of meeting him at Wizard World Philadelphia in 2016 and I still haven’t recovered from the encounter. He was incredibly kind, gracious, and endearing; so many people turned out to see him and he stayed late into the night to make sure everyone got their autographs and pictures. He also donated the entirety of his convention paycheck to charity.

(And, yes, since I know you all are wondering: he is, in fact, heart-stoppingly gorgeous in person. I’ve done a decent job thus far maintaining my composure in the presence of some of my favorite celebrities at conventions, but he’s enough to make even my steely hands shake.)

I truly can’t say enough wonderful things about him; I was crazy about him before but seeing his generosity, enthusiasm, and warmth in person cemented things for me for perpetuity.

So, to honor his 36th birthday, I give you an indulgent post filled with pictures of his beautiful self wearing Victorian period clothing. Let’s start with Crimson Peak, shall we?

In addition to my visit to the Chigusa Tea exhibition in the Sackler Gallery, I whiled away the hours at one of my all-time favorite museums, the National Gallery of Art. I always spend a great deal of time in the 18th and 19th century sections of the gallery and after spending some time with some old friends in British landscapes (J.M.W. Turner is a longtime companion), I found myself wandering into the American galleries and gazing dumbstruck at the above painting. It’s by Frederic Edwin Church, an American landscape painter from Connecticut, and was painted in 1877 on oil on canvas.

I first became acquainted with his work in an amazing exhibition at the American Art Museum back in 2012 called “The Civil War and American Art“, which featured many of his landscapes in a Civil War context. I was struck by the staggering beauty of his art, and the immensity and power of the works. As the above painting shows, his style “used extraordinary detail, romanticism, and luminism” in its depiction of a wild, idealized, uncorrupted, uninhabited nature, all of which was characteristic of the Romantic painters of the time.

There are many parts of this painting that I adore, but if I had to pick a favorite section, it might be the flock of birds in flight in the lower right side of the painting. It is actually breathtaking how realistic the birds seem in person; it’s more like a photograph than anything. Then your eyes move to the left to admire the translucent gleam on the ferns and fronds in the lower half of the painting and the varying greens on the moss and vines creeping up the trees. The ruby red throat of the bird sitting on the palm overlooking the vast river. The tiny, tiny boatman way in the distance, either coming or going from our idyllic paradise. The lushness of the whole scene is dominated by the perfect beams of light from the sun, giving the painting its name: El Rio de Luz, or the River of Light. I must have stood in front of this painting for nearly 20 minutes and could have stayed an hour more finding new things to love and appreciate about it. (Sorry, everyone: I am THAT person in the galleries who hogs up the space in front of the paintings for ages at a time. Just gently shoo me along.)

I’ll definitely be featuring more of his works in the future: he’s an art obsession of mine and he deserves to be one of yours as well, Dear Reader. See the enormous full size of the painting here or simply click on the image itself. Be careful: you might get lost in it for a time.

On Saturday, I took advantage of the one special day of superb weather we’ve had in the City and went downtown to spend the day at the museums. While wandering through the Sackler gallery, I came across an interesting exhibition: Chigusa and the Art of Tea.

I had never heard of Chigusa and was at first, quite confused as to what it indicated. Was it a name for a particular ceremony? An idea? Apparently, it is the name of the jar itself, Chinese in origin from the mid-13th–mid-14th century. From the exhibition’s website: “Japanese collectors have long engaged with objects through the practice of formalized tea presentation called chanoyu. Within the compact and focused setting of the tearoom, they singled out exceptional works through use, scrutiny, and discussion. They gave added distinction to stellar tea-leaf storage jars—utensils of imposing scale and presence—by awarding them personal names and adorning them with precious textiles.”

This ritual of naming and presentation led some participants in the various tea ceremonies to record their experiences in diaries, an excerpt of which is shown above. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to take photos in the exhibition so any that you see here are taken from this slideshow. Chigusa itself is enormous; I cannot imagine its weight or whether or not you would have ladled tea straight from the jar into other pouring instruments or whether you would have poured it straight from Chigusa. The exhibition also showed several other instruments used for grinding the tea into powder and how they would dress the pot and knot it in decorative silk cords for display.

All in all, I think it’s a beautiful way to honor the tea ceremony. I also love the elaborate wood nesting boxes that stored it, shown below.

I highly recommend seeing this exhibition if you’re in town and in general, the Sackler and Freer Asian art galleries are not to be missed.

Exactly one month ago, the world became a much sadder place. Harold Ramis died at the age of 69, leaving us an incredible legacy of brilliant comedies and film-making. It is a virtual guarantee that something this man has written, produced, or directed made you laugh in this lifetime: SCTV, Stripes, Animal House, Caddyshack, National Lampoon’s Vacation (and anything Clark Griswold, since he advised Chevy Chase on how the role should be played), Ghostbusters, Groundhog Day, Analyze This, and the list goes on.

If you couldn’t tell by this wicked great blog Katherine and I have going on here, I’ve been something of a geek my whole life. I downright worshipped this sardonic braniac when I was a kid and saw in him all the intellectual, knowledge-seeking, sarcastic joke-cracking, marshmallow-destroying glory I sought in life (I will always nurse a wicked crush on Egon Spengler. Definitely the hottest Ghostbuster). To say that his death hit me hard would be something of an understatement. No, I never met the guy, but he was a big part of my childhood and was taken from us way too soon.

The item description is as follows: “Manufactured circa 1870. Made for use by ladies, this ring gun was designed to fit on the small finger. This is a pinfire ring revolver which measures 1 3/8″ in total length. It has a 5/16”, six round smooth bore cylinder, approximately .06 caliber pinfire operating on the pepperbox principle without a barrel. There is a tiny hammer cocked by the fingernail and then the trigger is pushed inward to fire. The ring portion is German silver and marked “FEMME FATALE” and engraved with a simple leaf pattern and the remaining parts are a bright niter blue. Complete in a blue leatherette case with a gold embossed wire border around the outer edge of the lid, a German silver inlay marked “FEMME / FATALE” in the center and blue and purple satin and velvet lined interior French cut to accommodate the ring, a tiny screwdriver/wire brush and six pinfire rounds.”

Meet Pinkabsinthe and her amazing steampunk, gotchic jewelry, clothing, and textile work. A Russian artist currently living in Poland, her clothing and jewelry features an astonishing attention to detail, color, and intricacy of form.

I love all of these collars.

She also makes fantastically detailed watch-cuffs, and complete sets of jewelry.

YOU GUYS IT’S A SKULL CAMEO EYE PATCH DO YOU UNDERSTAND.

It appears that not all of the gorgeous pieces on her deviantArt are available for purchase, so it if you find something you like, it might be worth shooting her a message on her Etsy page (she specifically requests that you use Etsy conversation for any questions or enquiries). Here’s her deviantArt website and her Etsy site.

My dear ones, forgive the lack of regular posting from yours truly, but between our recent influx of snow and being completely and totally obsessed with the Winter Olympics in Sochi, I’ve fallen a bit behind (I was screaming in my house today at the results of the ice dancing, truly. Anyone else??). Currently, our landscape looks much like the one above, “Early Snow”, painted by American painter John Francis Murphy in 1884. Anyone else buried along with us poor souls? Anyone else as SICK OF IT AS WE ARE? UGH.

Apropos of nothing, I’m also COMPLETELY obsessed with NBC’s Hannibal, which feeds my far older obsession with Mads Mikkelsen. So, here’s a pic of him as Dr. Johann Friedrich Struensee from the 2012 film A Royal Affair. Yes, I know that the movie takes place in the 18th century. I don’t care. Because Mads. Because Mads in period clothing. Because ponytails. Because I can.

How gorgeous is this? I saw this today and it just took my breath away. This lovely oil painting is called Shipping on the Clyde by John Atkinson Grimshaw and can be found at the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid. Grimshaw, born in 1836, was known for his land- and cityscapes and nighttime paintings. Heavily influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites, his works featured realistic representations of urban life, bustling shipping areas and docks, and scenes featuring a transition from light to darkness or vice-versa.

As one well acquainted with the night (Thank you, Mr. Frost), I’m always drawn to night paintings, especially ones with such strikingly warm lighting as this one. The fading light of the sunset to the right of the image contrasts with the bright light of the shops and storefronts; a new sun rises as another sets. The strong lines of the masts also mirrors the lines of the buildings, creating a complimentary symmetry in this dock scene. The hues of blue used in this particular painting speak to me on a spiritual level; it’s like he knew all my favorite blues and joined them together on a single canvas. According to Wikipedia, “Whistler remarked that “I considered myself the inventor of Nocturnes until I saw Grimmy’s moonlit pictures.” (I have to say, I always love finding out that yes, in fact, all the famous people did know and hang out with each other.) You can see another wonderful sampling of his paintings here and I’m sure I’ll feature them again.